Birthday
by VampGrlDru
Summary: An overview of the life of George Weasley after Fred's death shown through his birthdays. Pairings: GeorgeXAngelina


**A/N: Hi there, this is the second story I wrote for the Weasley Fan Club on Deviant Art. This time I was given the prompt Birthday. Warning this isn't exactly going to be a happy piece. I chose to use the idea of Birthdays to give an overview into George Weasley's life after Fred so expect sadness.**

**Feel free to skip this short rant about George Weasely's future:  
>I've read quite a few fan fictions about the future in which they make George and Angelina's kids even older than Harry and Ginny's. Now fair enough if thats how they see this fictional world going down. I have no major problem with it and everyone has their own opinions and a lot of them are amazing fics. It's not like I'm going to be petty and refuse to read them just because people have differing opinions to me, I'd never read anyting then.<strong>

**But, personally in my mind after Fred's death George would not have been in a stable enough position mentally to start dating, get married and have/take care of children all within the six or so years it takes for Harry and Ginny to have kids, especially as you saw that they already had an established relationship (even if it was on hiatus for reasons of war) before the ending of the novels. J.K said herself that George never fully gets over it to his dying day and I honestly don't see him making some miraculous recovery in the first couple of years, the trauma would be far too much. He'd probably be having a hard enough time keeping himself together let alone being able to look after another human being right away. ****Also, not everyone has to get married and have kids all in their twenties, especially if your life span is beyond that of a regular human being like the witches and wizards are in HP. And children do not always get born according to the age order of the parents and their siblings. Just because your older than your sibling doesn't mean that you'll necessarily do it all before them, thats just silly and it doesn't work that way. So thats my reasoning behind why I always saw Fred Jr and Roxanne as being the youngest of all the Weasleys rather than Hugo and Lily. And thats my explanation behind this piece and the timing of everything in it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, but if I did it would be real and I would be stalking Neville Longbottom right now :P**

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><p><strong><span>Birthday<span>**

11 Years Ago

It is said that the first year after you lose someone you love is the hardest. But that over time the pain of them not being there will fade, and although it will stay with you forever, life will begin to become bearable again, and eventually you'll be able to feel happiness again.

'Whoever said that is full of shit,' he said slurring as he leaned against the hard stone surface behind him.

His vision was blurred and his eyes watered mixing with the rain that poured down on him. He was soaked to the bone and shivering like mad but refused to move. Shakily he raised the bottle to his lips taking a long swig of fire whiskey mixed with the rainwater. He traced the words on his brother's tombstone, sobbing loudly.

Present Day

The alarm clock buzzed loudly. Groaning he smacked the snooze button and rolled over pulling the sheets over his head.

'George get up.' Angelina called tugging at the bed covers.

'In a few minutes,' he moaned.

'You said that two hours ago, now get up. I told Molly that we'd be there by eleven and it's already half ten,' she said hitting him with something.

He tugged the covers down glaring at his wife stood there with her hands on her hips looking both annoyed and worried. He sighed loudly sitting up and looking down at the hairbrush that had hit him in the stomach.

'You know I don't want to go so why make me. Every year it's the same thing,' he grumbled, tossing back the covers and sitting up, his legs hitting the soft carpet.

'I know, but they're your family. They know how hard it is on you and they worry about you. I worry about you.'

'You don't have to worry about me; I'm a big boy now,' he said in a half hearted attempt at a joke.

'George, I'm being serious, and your family have a very good reason to be worried about you today,' she said, looking worried.

'Yeah I know...' he mumbled ashamedly.

Today was George Weasley's 31st birthday, and he wished more than anything he could sleep the day away until it was all over. He had despised his birthday ever since Fred's death, not sharing his birthday with him felt wrong. Every year he became another year older than Fred, and as the age gap between them increased he felt further apart from him. It was like they were no longer even twins George was thirty one and Fred would forever remain 20.

The first four years had been the worst. Every year he would wake up and go to the nearest bar and attempt to drink himself to death for the next three days. Perhaps he had wished for it to poison him to death or maybe he just wanted to wipe everything from his mind, to forget just for a couple of days. He would wake up on the forth day in one of his brother's houses depending on who had found him at Fred's grave.

It had seemed as though all of them had made a silent pact to never tell their parents what George got up to every year when he went missing in the three days surrounding his birthday. Maybe it had been the worried look in his mother's eyes when she saw him next or the sadly sympathetic looks that his father had given him but George believed that they had known despite their kid's joint vow of silence.

Yes his family had every right in the world to be worried about him every time his birthday came around. All of them were terrified that he would revert back to him attempting to kill himself with alcohol.

He looked at Angelina staring down at him with a worried look on her face, her arms hugging around her large pregnant stomach. In three months George would be a Dad, responsible for taking care of another human being.

Angie was his everything; she was like an angel sent to him to save him from the worst of himself. She had stuck it out with him, when she had first started dating him he had just begun to change his life. After spending four years of being a hard alcoholic, dealing with depression and a suicide attempt. He had dragged his family through hell and back but was finally willing to change. She had dealt with his relapse; she had seen him at his best and his absolute worse. She had waiting patiently for three years before he had married her and another two before he had finally been able to believe that he could trust himself to raise a family with her without falling into his old ways.

6 Years Ago

He tapped the shop door with his wand locking it. Turning away from the shop he walked the familiar pathway of Diagon Alley staring blankly at the ground.

Why did his birthday have to exist, why couldn't everyone just ignore it? Why couldn't he ignore it? It was one of the few things that still tied him to his brother but came at the price of feeling the pain of his loss.

_Well let's get this train wreck over with, _he thought to himself.

Suddenly he collided with something hard and landed on the pavement.

'Ouch!' he heard a woman yell...wait a second he knew that voice.

'Angelina?'

'George?'

They stared at one another in shock before George came to his senses and stood up offering her his hand.

'Thanks, sorry about that I wasn't watching where I was walking,' she said smiling as she took his hand.

'Nah, its okay neither was I,' he said, winking at her.

She chuckled before looking down at her hand which George quickly let go of. His ears turned bright red.

'Heh heh, sorry,' he mumbled rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

She grinned widely at him.

'It's nice seeing you again; it's been a while hasn't it.'

'About three years,' she said automatically.

An uncomfortable silence surrounded the air as they were both reminded of Fred's death and how it had caused him to isolate himself from all of his friends.

'Say, what are you up too? Do you want to grab something to eat maybe, catch up on old times?' she asked suddenly, looking at him nervously.

George's eyes went wide...was she asking him out on a date?

He opened his mouth to say yes when he caught sight of Ron stood at the end of the street watching him curiously.

'I can't,' he blurted out stupidly.

She backed away from him, looking embarrassed.

'Oh right, sorry, of course you can't. It was dumb of me to think that...I mean it's been three years and...'

'No, wait! I mean. It's my birthday!' he yelped grabbing her hand again to prevent her from leaving, 'it's my birthday and well Ron's waiting to take me to the Burrow for this huge family thing. I've been kind of absent for the past few, he's already threatened to have Harry send the Auror's after me if I don't show.'

'Oh, right,' she said.

'How about tomorrow, after work?' he asked hopefully.

'That sounds nice, I'll owl you tomorrow,' she said he smile stretching across her face making him smile back.

'Great, so tomorrow,' he said, backing away from her waving.

'Yes tomorrow,' she said trying not to laugh at his goofiness, 'And George? Happy Birthday.'

Present Day

'George?' Angelina asked him worriedly.

'I'm sorry Angie, I know you worry. I'll be fine,' he said, standing up and kissing her tenderly on the lips before going to pull his clothes from the dresser by the bed.

No, he would not allow himself to fall back into that dark abyss he had worked so hard to claw his way out of. He didn't care about himself, but he did care about his parents, his siblings, and most importantly the amazing woman stood in front of him and his babies.

Fred's death would always hurt; it was a long, deep scar on his life that he knew would never truly heal. But he had managed to find something worth living for and he was willing to suffer the pain if it meant that he could share the happiness in her life.

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><p><strong>Reviews are welcome<strong>


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